Word: somewhat
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...banned from critical discourse, than it is a triumph of the human ego. This is all right with me - I don't think anything worthwhile is created without egotism pushing the effort along and it is good to see it functioning in such extreme circumstances. But still, somewhat shame-faced I have to admit that at some point in the film I began to hear a subversive voice whispering in my ear, and what it was saying was, "Could you blink a little faster...
...obscure desire to make up for past hostilities by placing her old man in a fancy nursing home. As her brother Jon points out, the patient really won't be able to discern the difference between that and more affordable accommodations. Jon, however, is a somewhat withdrawn, phlegmatic and therefore somewhat unpersuasive man. A slightly shabby scholar in dismal Buffalo, he's writing a book on Brecht, while doing his best to avoid what seems to be a promising relationship or, for that matter, any adult responsibilities. He's a grad student in perpetuity...
...Jenkins makes us feel the false cheerfulness and emotional emptiness of nursing home life. Better still, she rather subtly shows how Jon and Wendy's enforced concern for someone they don't really like very much forces them out of their defensive crouches - forces them, too, to take somewhat better control of their own lives. I wouldn't call the film inspirational - it is too well observed to succumb to easy sentiment - but its realism is patiently engaging and subtly insinuating. And Linney and Hoffman are extraordinary; refusing to beg for our sympathy, they earn it moment by quotidian moment...
...have recently been featured on the cover of Vogue, draped around a rather sour-looking Keira Knightley. In France (and in more hipster-ish parts of the United States) it has even become popular to wear a scarf advocating Palestinian liberation, which I must say is very chic and somewhat ironic. The scarves of today, however, are very different than the weaselly scarves of yesteryear. They are large, usually in a bold graphic print with lots of fringe. This style could be hard to wear (cf. the Olsen Twins, especially Mary Kate, who loves wearing such scarves with no pants...
...Musharraf took power in a military coup eight years ago, vowing to stay on only as long as it took to stamp out corruption and repair the economy. He has delivered somewhat on both fronts. But his other major pledge - to not "allow the people to be taken back to the era of sham democracy, but to a true one" - rings hollow. Musharraf has bequeathed to Pakistan a tattered constitution, patched with amendments and filled now with so many loopholes justifying his rule that it better resembles a crocheted doily, ready to be thrown over whatever ugliness the next ruler...